Meteor mistaken for distress flare

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The hunt for a sinking ship that launched a distress flare was cancelled - after lifeboat crews discovered it was actually a meteor. Numerous eagle-eyed families living off the Cumbrian coast sent Maryport Coastguard Rescue Team reports of seeing the ship's flare, prompting a full-scale sea rescue operation.

Several reports described seeing a "moving red object" over the sea between Workington, Cumbria, and the Isle of Whithorn on Sunday night. Concerned crews at RNLI Workington found no boat and feared they might have been too late to save any lives. However, they later discovered the red object was in fact a meteor that was also spotted and photographed passing over Loch Ness in Scotland.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11479624/Meteor-mistaken-for-sinking-ships-distress-flare.html